Psalm 10

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:32:50utc

A footnote in the NIV says: "Psalms 9 and 10 may have been originally a single acrostic poem, the stanzas of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Septuagint they constitute one psalm." The content of Psalm 10 is clearly a continuation of the theme of the latter part of the ninth. David asks a question which is as old as the existence of evil in the world: "Why does God not do anything against it? Why does He hide Himself before the needy? Is it true that God is far away?" The animistic tribes of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, remember that man used to live in fellowship with God, but that this fellowship was broken and God withdrew from this earth. Now man sees himself surrounded by demons.

The impression we may sometimes have–as if God is far away–is, of course, an optical illusion. Two factors play a role in this: the feeling of estrangement which is the result of sin, and the limitation of our vision. Sin is spiritual death, and without a spirit that is alive man cannot have fellowship with God. It is man who has hidden and removed himself from the presence of God, not the other way around. In Christ Jesus God is with us: Immanuel. Also, our vision is limited to a few years, which is less than a fraction of eternity. If God waits four hundred years before He brings judgment upon His people, we think that He does not do anything. In our opinion, help that is not given immediately is no help at all. Man is ephemeral, a dayfly. Both good and evil men suffer from this illusion.

Vs. 13 captures the essence of the philosophy of evil men: "He won't call me to account." The illusion that man will not be called upon to give account, makes him act irresponsibly and diminishes his human dignity. Dr. Mengele, the war criminal, the murderer of Auschwitz, clung to this till the end of his life: "No judgment!" The fact that man has to keep on repeating these words to himself proves that he knows better in his heart. Man does not say: "There is no God" out of an inner conviction; it is a conclusion to which he has brought himself purposely; it is a mantra he uses to hypnotize himself. An atheist is not a realist. The man who knows God feels frustrated when he observes this, because of the human tendency to look at men, rather than at God. If we would evaluate our neighbor in the light of God, we would pity him and have compassion. God loves even proud men. The phrase: "In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak," could also be rendered as "the arrogance of the wicked inflames the weak." The word "hunt down," or "hotly pursue" as the NAS translates it, comes from the Hebrew dalaq, which means " burning, chase, inflame, kindle, persecute (-or), pursue hotly." None of the English translations give the interpretation of the righteous being indignant, but the original text would justify this.

The person who does not know God has also broken with his fellowmen. Without God, man does not only rule over his fellowmen, but he tries to exploit him. Without God, man will, ultimately, lose his humanity. This thought seems to be the theme of verses 2-11. The context seems to justify the English rendering, more than the Dutch. We do find the thought of indignation at other places in the Book of Psalms , however: "Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you."^¹ And: "He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head."²

The freedom God gives to the wicked is, in itself, a kind of judgment. The wicked will run against the wall and thus will declare judgment on himself. On the day of judgment everyone will condemn himself.

The boasting and the blessing in vs. 3 can be either hypocritical or atheistic. In both cases the wicked borrows the language of religion. The word order in the phrase "he blesses the greedy" can be reversed, so that it reads: "the greedy blesses." The Hebrew from "greedy" is Uwbotseea`, which comes from batsa`, meaning, according to Strong's Definitions: "to break off, i.e. (usually) plunder; figuratively, to finish." The idea is of a loan shark, who goes around blessing people. There are various ways of plundering people. Dishonest gain or profit that is too high are contrary to the Christian way of life. The Christian way, in ethics and business alike, is to maintain a sober life style, and to make up a budget, and if the Lord gives us profit over and above this, to deposit this on the account of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our financial dealings, more than anything else, demonstrate whether we believe in God or not.

Two characteristics David mentions about the wicked is their arrogance and the feeling of false security. The wicked makes himself believe that he will not have to give account of his life and he experiences this as liberating. Our bodies often express our emotions. An example of this is found in vs. 4 where the NIV says: "The wicked in his pride does not seek him [God]," the KJV renders this: "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God." The Hebrew, literally, says: "The wicked, through the height of his nose …" God has given man the ability to express his inmost emotions in a physical way. This gift can be used in a good and wholesome way as well as in a depraved fashion. The wicked bases his security upon a very small foundation. He bases his conclusion upon the experience of a few years in which he was not shaken. This shortsightedness is also the ground for his supposition that there is no God and there will be no judgment. We always express our inner convictions accurately and consistently in the way we act. When the wicked man robs his neighbor he is expressing his philosophy of life. Hitler acted on the basis of his conviction that the conqueror was always right. In the same way, one's love for his neighbor demonstrates his love for God. Verses 8-10 paint a picture of a man whose moral conscience has become like that of an animal.

In vs. 12 we read again the expression: "Arise, LORD!" which is found in other psalms also.³ David believes that God will intervene. These anthropomorphist expressions about God tell us more about David than about the Almighty. Thoughts that God would be far away, or that He would hide Himself, or that He might forget are figments of David's mind. By using them, David calls himself back to reality. We are never fully convinced that things are not what they seem to be. Our spiritual insight, which tells us that the eternal God must always be omnipresent, and that nothing can be hidden from His omniscience, is almost always defeated by the noisy propaganda of the devil, who bombards us with the "hard facts of life." The time factor plays an important role in this misconception. Every evil that is not punished immediately, seems to go unpunished. We cannot understand that God has no reason for hurry. Our limited understanding is the reason for our asking "why?"

David's sense of reality break through in vs. 14, where he sees that God starts to act. The interesting, and for us, incomprehensible feature in this is that our prayers and the dawning of our spiritual understanding are not redundant and fruitless, because it is in response to our prayer that God arises. How this all fits together, I do not know. It appears that the helpless victim and the fatherless have a deeper insight into God's character than anybody else. It seems ironic, but they find themselves in a privileged position. This is perhaps what the apostle Paul means when he says: "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."⁴

The last verses of this psalm deal with the expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness, which Peter mentions.⁵ God sits upon the throne of the universe; heaven and earth which were soiled by sin have fled before Him, and God has justified and vindicated the victim of sin. David projects this vision of the future upon the present and thus he strengthens the hearts of men. In New Testament terms this is: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."⁶

¹ Ps. 5:10

² Ps. 7:15,16

³ See Ps. 3:7; 7:6

⁴ II Cor. 12:10

⁵ II Pet. 3:13

⁶ Col. 1:27